D&D 5E Why is animate dead considered inherently evil?

[Tolerable Tyrant]

I'm having a troublesome time understanding why the animate dead spell is considered evil. When I read the manual it states that the spall imbues the targeted corpse with a foul mimicry of life, implying that the soul is not a sentient being who is trapped in a decaying corpse. Rather, the spell does exactly what its title suggests, it only animates the corps. Now of course one could use the spell to create zombies that would hunt and kill humans, but by that same coin, they could create a labor force that needs no form of sustenance (other than for the spell to be recast of course). There have also been those who have said "the spell is associated with the negative realm which is evil", however when you ask someone why the negative realm is bad that will say "because it is used for necromancy", I'm sure you can see the fallacy in this argument.

However, I must take into account that I have only looked into the DnD magic system since yesterday so there are likely large gaps in my knowledge. PS(Apon further reflection I've decided that the animate dead spell doesn't fall into the school of necromancy, as life is not truly given to the corps, instead I believe this would most likely fall into the school of transmutation.) PPS(I apologize for my sloppy writing, I've decided I'm feeling too lazy to correct it.)

 

[Maxperson]

That's not homebrew though - that's rules as written. Homebrew is saying that the default alignments for monsters are the only alignments they can have

The defaults alignments for undead are in the MM. The default for necromancy is that bringing evil undead into the world is evil. You can change the alignments of undead and therefore the default necromancy assumptions, but that is home brew. Home brew is a changing of the defaults into something else. A zombie is never, ever anything other than NE unless the DM changes the default.

 

[Jackdaw McGraw]

Imagine a necromancer trying to explain to horrified villagers that a deceased's soul always makes a clean separation from the body - thus making postmortem animation a morally neutral enterprise - because a spellbook told him so.

"No no, good villagers, there's no need to drag the town cleric into this debate. The undead's famous fear of confidently presented holy symbols, or their tendency to crumble under the flashing blade of a paladin, shouldn't be misconstrued as a moral position taken by the gods or their most faithful champions.

It's merely a clash of disharmonious energies, vibrating at different wavelengths. Yes, one is classically represented as "dark" - like the lovely robes I'm wearing - and "light", but these are merely metaphors for elemental forces that have no more will or malevolence than, say, oil and water.

People. Please listen to reason. I'm a good necromancer. We're much more common than you think. And none of use would dare animate a pinky if we thought there was an iota of a chance that your loved ones' souls hadn't departed swiftly to the hereafter the moment they perished. Poof and they're gone.

I think we can all agree that what happens to us after we die is one of the most well understood aspects of the mortal experience. Completely precise, knowable and not at all fraught, mysterious or in need of protective taboos. The whole ritual of grieving and preparing the body for a "sacred" burial seems a tad bit silly when you think about it, now doesn't it? Reverence for meat? I mean...

...dammit, I've said too much.

Don't come any closer, you soulbots!"

 

[Lanefan]

Well, good and evil are based on societal norms in many philosophies. What D&D considers is moral is mostly based on western European/American cultures, mixed with mythology and folklore.

True; but the formula [messing with the dead = evil] goes way beyond just Euro-American cultures. It's one of the very few societal-religious-cultural tenets that's almost universal among human beings.

 

[MGibster]

This is a very odd take considering we're talking about a game about 80% of the character options being all about exactly that thing.

One of the big things that differentiates us mere mortals from the gods is that we die and they don't. You take away death and you take away what is a universal human experience.

They still had to find a way around teleporter buffer immortality. Because No Transhumanism allowed.

This is true. But there are certainly other transhuman science fiction stories, right? The RPG Blue Planet features transhumanism and prolonged life through an alien substance mined off a distant planet.

 

[Oofta]

People keep coming back to the 'uncontrolled killing spree' thing, but keep in mind that, again, this is a relatively new development created to justify undead being evil after the fact.

It's like declaring whipped cream evil and a decade later coming back with a tweet saying it's because it left near babies it strangles them.

This is a 5E specific question, unless you're changing the alignment and lore you are creating an evil creature that will murder people if not commanded otherwise on a daily basis. You can change the lore if you want of course, but whether you like the it or not it is the current rule.

 

[Voadam]

Creating a zombie to dump Sauron's Ring into Mount Doom? Of course!

Give the corrupting artefact Ring of Power to an undead evil killing machine and send it off into the heart of the Necromancer's land where his power is greatest?

Don't give it to the determined pure of heart halfling to resist the ring's pull at the end, but to a +0 wisdom saving throw undead?

That is the plan?

Actually I can think of multiple groups I DM'd that might try it.

 

[tomBitonti]

Well, in eberron there is an elven society with undead leaders and guards. Not rotting away. There are others examples too.... But I guess you could assume that's what I meant, rather than intelligent undead, which was what I meant. My bad for not being clear.

That elven society didn’t catch on with everyone. The folks that I played with thought it was nonsense and ignored it.
TomB

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Well, in eberron there is an elven society with undead leaders and guards. Not rotting away. There are others examples too.... But I guess you could assume that's what I meant, rather than intelligent undead, which was what I meant. My bad for not being clear.

Yeah but that's explicitly not necromancy. In fact, the Undying Court led the effort to expel the actual necromancers from Aerenal. The Undying Court are sustained by the devotion of their people - they are not rotting meat puppets controlled by unnatural magic.

 

[Maxperson]

You can repeat it if you want, but doing so doesn’t make “not good” mean “inherently evil.”

And you can argue "not good" doesn't mean inherent evil if you want, but adding evil permanently to the world through the creation of evil zombies, evil skeletons and/or evil ghouls is evil. If you change the alignments of the undead so that they are not evil, your argument gains some legs, but then you're involved with homebrew.

 

[Raduin711]

1. Animate Dead is instantaneous, but really should be considered permanent as the undead, once created, exists until destroyed. They cannot be dispelled via dispel magic, etc. So, unlike animate objects, they continue to go on once made.

The spell is instantaneous, because the spell exists, does what it says (creates a zombie/skeleton) and then exits. The skeleton or zombie is not magical, as peculiar as that is to say. If you cast dispel magic or throw it in an anti-magic zone, the undead continues to function.

If it were permanent, then there would be a permanent magical aura on the zombie or skeleton, and if it encountered a dispel magic or anti-magic zone, the spell would be undone and the undead would stop its function.

This also means that the function of the spell to maintain command is also not an ongoing spell... so you can't dispel a necromancer's ability to command his undead. Which is weird. This means that the spell appears, tells the undead "You will follow his orders for 24 hours" the undead says "okay" and the spell goes away. The undead does as it's told even though there is no spell there compelling it. So there must be something knitted innately into the undead that makes them work that way.